How to build resilience in your kids when a loved one dies
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- Created: Thursday, 14 July 2016 11:37
People often buy pets for their kids to teach them responsibility and allow them to experience one of life’s hardest experiences, grief. But if you don’t have pets or they haven’t passed away yet, what can you do to prepare your kids for the death of a loved one?
Go to funerals
A few years back we could have left our kids at home instead of taking them to the funeral of a relative. He didn’t mean much to the kids and they only knew him in his old, smelly stage of life. So why risk upsetting them? Kids certainly don’t hold back in their honest appraisals of people do they?! I remember being appalled as a kid at the wrinkles, the makeup, the blue rinse, the frailty and the smell of old age. Where had the vigor gone? Even as a child you don’t need someone to tell you this is decay. Of course attending the funeral of a ‘distant’ relative is actually a soft way of educating your kids about loss, grief and mortality. The topic is introduced for you and there are lots of opportunities to answer questions related to life’s end. So I say, go. Talk about what the day will involve, who will be there, how they’ll dress and what it means. Of course you may not be able to avoid the most difficult parenting questions of all, ‘Mum, what happens after we die?’ ‘Will I see you again?’
“Dad I’ve got another assignment”
Ever been hassled by an airline for your carryon baggage?
Could you really imagine yourself salivating over a bowl of veggies instead of a baked chocolate sweetie?
The kids said it was the best experience of church ever. What an engaging, confronting, disturbing and moving way of getting people engaged with the text of the Bible.What was it?
Two very rich business partners decide to have a $1 bet over whether someone is successful by nature or only circumstance. To see who is right they strip the guy who will inherit the empire of everything and cast him on the street. At the same time, they pick a random bum off the street and elevate him as the new inheritor of the empire. From this point on, the wager is all about which of the two men will succeed. Will the rightful heir rise to the top because of his ‘nature’ OR will the bum prove to be equally successful given all the opportunities of the rightful heir?’ The story or movie rather, if you don’t recognise it already is ‘Trading Places’
Recently I took some time out with my family in Perth after some performances of Anton’s Antics in schools that I did over there. I’d been looking forward to a week of surfing on an island off the coast called Rottnest. Rottnest Island has these cute miniature kangaroos (Quokkas) that are just adorable. It also boasts incredible snorkeling over coral and the best surf in Perth, which actually is not that big a boast given Perth’s appalling surf. But anyhoo, the waves can get really good out there if you hit the right conditions. I can’t tell you how bummed I was when the rain settled in and the surf went flat. Islands are no place to be in bad weather.
